Archive for April, 2007
What is Google Page Rank?
April 27th, 2007 | 
Author: Google Page Rank is a strange oddity that means very little yet is discussed over and over again. Many wish it would just go away and be removed from the memories of all Internet land. Here is an excellent write up on what it is and, more importantly, what it isn’t.
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Microsoft Submit It! to Retire
Microsoft is ending their Submit It! service effective May 18, 2007. Some features of this service will be missed. Others should never have been there. What will replace it? Will they replace it? Does anyone really care? It’s like they never really put their full effort into developing it into a complete tool.
hakia Semantic Search
Supposedly using semantic search, hakia allows you to type in a question or a statement and obtain highlighted results. The difference between this and your typical highlighting is that it highlights phrases similar to yours, not just highlighting the same words you typed. Powered by Ask (of course), it offers up information in ways you can’t get as quickly from Google and others because of this highlighting. You only have to speed read the highlighting to locate the page you want. Will people go deeper into the results because of the time saved? Who knows. What I do know is that this is a very exciting and welcomed change in search technology.
What’s yoName? Social Search
Search across a number of social network sites including MySpace, Digg and others from one web site. This is a great way to find people information without having to visit each site and endure some of the overloaded advertising some of them force you to endure.
Google’s Preferred Bidding
Google has announced, with little fanfare, a new bidding feature called Preferred Bidding. This allows you to specify an average bid instead of a maximum bid. This means your bid could go over the amount you’ve requested as well as below, but your average will always be the amount you’ve stated.
Interpretation: Give Google control over your bidding and let them hold your wallet. People who have done this for a while remember Yahoo!’s failed attempt at this. Can Google do better? Did anyone really ask for this feature? It seems to benefit Google more than users. Time will tell.
Froogle Makeover…..Again
Froogle is retiring to the same home as Jeeves the Butler. Froogle will now be Google Product Search. It’s a simple name that says what it does. Will Google now change their name to Web Site Search?
Removing Content From Google
Now why would I want to remove information from Google? Google tends to spider everything your robots.txt file and meta tags allows. Sometimes it can be too aggressive. For those times that Google indexes login pages, password protected pages (or pages that should have been password protected) and other content you want invisible, use Google’s Webmaster Central to manage your site. There are some safeguards to make certain you are really who you say you are.
Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: Requesting removal of content from our index
Stumble Upon and Google Merger?
There are rumors of Google purchasing Stumble Upon. Stumble is a service that let’s you bookmark and categorize your favorite sites. You can then share certain links you’ve created. Stumble also allows you to find related or suggested sites similar to the site in question. Of course they are using individual’s data to help with this. The Google toolbar is sporting a pair of dice looking icon that uses Stumble Upon’s data to help provide suggested sites to the one you are viewing. You don’t get to rate the site or do other things that you can in Stumble, but it’s a nice addition for quick queries.
This has led to speculation that they may purchase Stumble Upon. Let the rumors begin.
Women are from Yahoo! and Men are from Google?
You gotta love research. One study says women prefer Yahoo! and men prefer Google. Another study says there are more women on the Internet than men by a wide margin. Other studies say Google is the most heavily used search engine. Put it all together and it just don’t add up. What really matters is the demographics that you want to attract. What can you do to help attract those people to your site. Well Microsoft has a cute tool for this at their adCenter Labs. While I’m not saying it’s any more accurate than some of these so called studies (and who pays for these?), it could shed some light on the search phrases you are using. By the way, your results will vary over time as the Internet constantly is in a state of change. Makes life, and my job, much more interesting.
Scrapblog – Another Social Site
Yet another great idea for socializing on the web is also an avenue for promoting your business. Take a look at the fun tool for putting a scrapbook online with photos, video, and the usual scrapbook stickers and such. It’s a fun interface that produces some entertaining results. Take a look and see how you might be able to use it to help promote your business. Make it entertaining and fun and who knows….